For the Album Challenge (10/13) and the 10 Characters 10 Prompts Challenge (2/10, Phoebe Black, abrasive)
"What if I'm a crowded desert,
Too much pain with little pleasure?"
- Emilie Autumn, "What If"
Abrasive.
That's what they call her.
Abrasive, hurtful, far too harsh.
"How will I ever marry you off?" her father asks. "With your attitude, there isn't enough gold in our family to pay off a suitor."
But Phoebe only smiles at that.
She has spent sixteen years building up her walls, being as unpleasant as humanly possible. She has perfected the art of never caring, of sharpening her tongue into a powerful weapon.
She has seen what marriage will do to a woman, has seen how meek and mindless it has made her mother. She will not serve men like that.
"Our bloodline must remain pure. You must-"
"I must do nothing, Father," she says sharply, smoothing her hands over her dress with a dignified huff. "Marriage is far too boring, and you are a mindless fool for advocating it."
She enjoys the way he falters and deflates at that.
Abrasive, they call her. Wicked and wrong with her sharp tongue and painful words.
And Phoebe Black wouldn't have it any other way.